NCI Short Course Focuses on Wheat and Flour Quality

Fargo, N.D., USA -- Delivering the right product to the customer is very important in the competitive world of flour milling. This week, nine participants are learning more about how grain type and quality affects the milling and baking processes as they attend the “Basics of Wheat and Flour Quality” Short Course. The course is offered by Northern Crops Institute, Fargo, N.D., May 19-21.

“This course is a great introduction to wheat and wheat flour quality,” says Brian Sorenson, NCI Director and lecturer in the course. “In this course, we give the participants a broad knowledge of quality parameters, milling and lab equipment, and some of the issues that relate to processing wheat and product utilization.”

“The participants learn testing procedures and protocols that will help them understand what’s most important in wheat and flour quality. In the past few years, we’ve been incorporating more hands-on practice in the laboratories because the participants learn even more when they try out the lab procedures themselves,” Sorenson concludes.

Topics in the class include: factors that define wheat and flour quality, environmental influences, quality tests and procedures, impact of milling on flour quality, role of protein and starch in flour based products, dough rheology, functional ingredients in flour and flour based products, baking technology, mixing, fermentation, and baking processes, and hands-on baking.